Brewing Analogy

The other day, I visited Satan in Midland to brew Betty Faulker Bock (See my next post. Or the one after that.). Some of his coworkers stopped by, three brothers who like beer. As we started sparging, they began asking us about brewing. We both tried to impress on them how easy brewing is. On the way home, I was listening to old Brewing Network podcasts where someone referenced Doc Scott's Cookie dough analogy. While I never heard the entire thing, I think I can figure it out.

There are two ways to get your cookie fix. Buy cookies in the store or make your own.

Take your average cookie recipe. You mix all the ingredients into a dough, then chill it. Then you take bits of the dough and put them on a baking sheet. In 20 minutes you have cookies. This is all-grain brewing. At this level, you can tweak all the ingredients to achieve the desired flavor you are looking for.

Or, you can go to the store and buy pre-made cookie dough, slice it up, put it on a cookie sheet and in 20 minutes you have cookies. This is extract brewing. You can push M&Ms into the dough, and make one cookie, or put one big chocolate chip into the center and make another. That's extract brewing with specialty grains.